The Wolfpack Boys baseball team has worked countless hours towards their success in winning the Dennis Gilbert Tournament Championship despite facing an extraordinary challenge: they don’t have a baseball field to practice on.
In previous years, the baseball team had access to the newly renovated Dodger’s Dream Field located in Maywood next to the YMCA [Young Men’s Christian Association]. The renovation project included “new playing surfaces and grass, an enclosed field, upgraded dugouts, upgraded irrigation systems, new pitcher’s mound, bullpens and an LED scoreboard resembling Dodger Stadium’s,” according to a city news service announcement published by Spectrum 1 News.
However, the YMCA began charging $4,000 per team, per season, to use the field. Not only do schools have to pay a large amount of money, but they also face constant scheduling conflicts. The team has to share the park with girls’ softball, Maywood Academy, and any baseball or softball programs the YMCA holds.
Despite new renovations, the field is not ideal for practice. Angel Iglesias, a senior and the Wolfpack baseball varsity captain shared the challenges they encountered in previous seasons during practices on the new field. “The field hasn’t really improved much. People still can’t sit in the bleachers, the bathrooms still aren’t able to be used, the bullpens still aren’t very good either, and we can’t even use the batting cage,” Iglesias said.
This season, the team faced constant challenges with inaccessibility to the right training grounds and limited practice space. Not only did they have to practice on the MACES football field, but they also had to share the field and training spaces with other sports such as track, golf, and softball. “I feel like without having an actual field to practice on we’re at an obvious disadvantage where we’re not getting realistic practice, and we aren’t fully trained for game-like scenarios,” Iglesias said.
New and inexperienced players were not fully prepared for games and did not feel like they were able to improve. “Being a new player, we need more practice space to learn and grow. With limited spacing, we try not to get in the way of the veteran players’ practices, which takes away from our growth as new players,” Jonathan Nunez, a sophomore on the JV team said.
Despite the challenges they have faced, the team has persevered. Players arrive at school around 7 a.m. to train and stay after school to practice as well, utilizing any available space for their training sessions. “Believe me I hate it, and I know they hate waking up earlier too, but we have to be here in the morning to train to prepare for the season,” Varsity baseball coach, Mr. Benavidez said.
Their journey has captivated the attention and support of staff around the campus, such as support from MACES Principal Duran and vice principal Mr. Duran and Dr. Marquez. “I think the baseball team has done a wonderful job dealing with this situation,” Duran said. Even then, their strong efforts have paid off as they maintained a solid record throughout the season with a 15-10 overall score and a third-place finish in league.
